I want to talk to you about an anime that really changed my views on the world when I was like 6 and again now.
Of course, I am talking about none other than the timeless and all-time great “Cowboy Bebop” directed by Shinichiro Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, with music by Yoko Kanno’s Seatbelts. I see this show as being the anime to top all anime in my experience despite my deep love for “Dragon Ball” and “Naruto”. And for good reason because before this show and even pretty much after it, there has never been anything close to being the commentary on existence this show was. I did not fully grasp that when I first watched it (I was 6), but damn, did it make me think in darker ways about reality, which was very far from being a bad thing. In fact, I would say it built the optimism I have about plenty of things today. Although I cannot comment much more than beyond that for my younger self, I can definitely say that 20-year-old Mahir was blown away by the fine art that this show was.
LIKE DAMN
I’m going to try and highlight features that made this so wonderful:
Music! I think anybody who has ever watched the show or plans on watching understand and will understand that the music for the show is hands-down fantastic. I mean, you may hate jazz, but you will be every much in awe in how well the genre feels appropriate for the scenes riddled with loneliness. You may hate rock but you would be impressed to see how well it blends in with the fight scenes. You may even be unfamiliar with tribal music but feel alive when you hear and see how expansive it makes the world seem in more existential scenes. The show was all about speaking to the music and making sure the music shed a story. The show’s team worked really hard in making sure the music felt right and then wrote scenes to the selected sounds. Just give a listen to my favorite song from the show and tell me you didn’t feel yourself being taken away into another world!
Setting! The show was said to be based off New York City and Hong Kong but when you watch the show, you’ll feel like you’re traveling the world as the bounty hunter crew takes you through space in the half-dystopia/half-Wild-West/full-surreal universe humans in the show exist. Spike Spiegel, the protagonist, himself is from Mars where the world seems like a mix between Los Angeles and Brooklyn seemingly calm like a regular old town but under the shadowy control of the crime syndicate Spike left years ago. These show took “the world is your oyster” saying to a whole another level by adapting so many culture and so much reality to shape the universe, breaking boundaries not many animes apparently did before.
Characters! Watanabe worked hard in designing Spike and having the other main characters act like foils. Their personalities are so vivid and you end up having feelings for each of them in different ways. Personally, I adore Edward (who was the only character based on a real person, i.e. the apparently bouncy Yoko Kanno). However, the common thing among them is loneliness, the loneliness deep inside that we all fear to let out and face honestly. It is just unforgiving and open in their interactions, but they find humor in so many ways despite their lack of wealth, resources, and comfort.
What is the greatest aspect of the tale is that the story has no specific plot nor does it try to answer every question you may have. It just flows and it flows so damn well, such that that gives it so much more meaning. Meaning from no meaning, it’s so damn beautiful. It really did become a genre onto itself.
